Redemption

  Then all hell broke loose.

  We were in the bar area now and people noticed what was going on. Nick and Joe came to try and rescue whoever this arsehole was. People were screaming and, pretty soon, Dean and Jimmy emerged, tackling beardy guy to the ground. Nick and Joe jumped Dean and Jimmy, causing us to jump on their backs.

  “Rosey, get off him. I got this. I’ve been itching to throw a punch at this guy ever since I got here.”

  Before I could even react, I felt my hair being yanked. I got off and looked around. Some redheaded woman with eyes like thunder was ready to punch me. I managed to dodge it as she shouted, “No one hurts Joe Hardman!”

  I was totally confused. Who the fuck was Joe Hardman? Before I could even try and figure this out, she was on me like a mad woman, scratching at me and pulling my hair. All around us was chaos. Glass could be heard shattering, loud grunts and screams were filling the air. Dean was punching Joe, and Jimmy was giving Nick a damn good hiding. Tara was gritting her teeth as she virtually yanked some woman’s hair off her head.

  I knew it had to stop soon because the cops had probably been called. The minute I thought that, sirens could be heard in the distance. Needing to end this quickly, I pulled my arm back and punched redhead in the eye. She screamed and fell to the floor.

  “Dean, Jimmy, Tara… We have to go!” They all looked at me and nodded.

  Grabbing my hand with a smile, Dean led us all out the back of the bar and into an alleyway. Chaos still sounded inside as we ran away as fast as possible. As soon as we got somewhere quiet, we stood around to catch our breath.

  Tara started laughing. “Shit. I’ve never had so much fun in my life. What the fuck was that?”

  I shook my head. “I have no idea. That redheaded crazy bitch started shouting something about hurting Joe Hardman.”

  Tara’s eyes widened. “Shit. I think he’s the quarterback for the Washington Redskins.”

  I laughed. “Seriously? That asshole is a professional football player?”

  Tara giggled. “Oh yeah, baby girl. You just got hit on by somebody famous.”

  I looked over and saw Dean’s jaw clench. “I’m glad I hit that fucker.” His fists were still clenched.

  “What happened?” Jimmy looked at Tara and me.

  Tara shrugged. “We just went to the toilet and came out to find this big, huge bearded guy telling us to leave for disrespecting his clients. Naturally, Jessica and I had something to say about that.” She looked at me with a wink.

  “We put in our complaint. I think the owner heard us loud and clear.” We both giggled, but Dean still looked fired up.

  “Do you want me to go back there and kick his arse for you?”

  Walking over to Dean, I placed my hand on his chest. He took a shuddering breath, then seemed to relax once he exhaled. “No, that won’t be necessary.”

  “Shit, man. I haven’t had a good old-fashioned fight like that in ages. You got to admit, that was fun.” Jimmy looked across at Dean and I saw his lip curve up into a heart-stopping smile.

  “Yeah, that was fun, turd-brain.”

  “Faggot.”

  “Dipshit.”

  “Fucknugget.”

  Dean started laughing. “Where the fuck do you get some of these?”

  Jimmy shrugged. “What can I say? Sometimes my imagination runs wild.” He looked at Tara, a mischievous grin on his face. “I’ve seen some women fighting in my time, but this was, by far, the biggest turn on ever. Where have you been all my life?”

  Tara started giggling. “About four thousand miles away, it would seem.” She fluttered her eyelashes for good measure.

  Jimmy smiled. “Well, even this distance seems too far apart.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Oh, please.”

  Jimmy cocked his eyebrow at me. “I wouldn’t go there if I were you, Tyler. You haven’t been the one to hear all the gushing love stories from lover boy over there.” He motioned to Dean with his thumb.

  Tara suddenly walked up to Dean and pointed her finger at his chest. “You better not hurt her. Tyler is a different person now. I know because I had to hear the stories for myself. You screw up and you’ll have Thunder Tara raining down on your ass. You hear me?”

  Jimmy looked Tara up and down as he licked his lips. He obviously loved feisty Tara. I couldn’t blame him. She was quite the woman.

  “I really don’t want that to happen, Thunder Tara, so I’ll promise I’ll be good. Tyler is the love of my life. I would protect her with my own until the end of the earth.” He looked at me when he said this. As usual, his blue eyes penetrated my own.

  Tara pointed her finger one last time at his chest. “Well, that’s good. I’m glad to hear it.” She then walked over to Jimmy, extended her hand, and said, “Hi. My name’s Tara Becksworth, and I’m a nurse at a local hospital in Fairfax. I’m thirty-six, divorced, no kids.” They shook hands. “Oh, and I like chocolate. In fact, I fucking love the stuff. Buy me some chocolate and I’m yours for life.” She winked at Jimmy and I saw him blink in awe.

  He looked up at Dean and I. “I think I might just be in love.”

  I started laughing. “Tara is a very easy person to fall in love with.” I looked over at her and she beamed at me. “So, Jimmy, what’s your story?”

  Jimmy looked at Dean, then back at me. “My name is Jimmy Taylor, I’m thirty-seven, and I’m…kind of a freelancer.”

  I raised my eyebrow. “In what, exactly?”

  Dean came over to me and put an arm around my waist. “Why don’t we find another bar far away from here? We can’t stay in this alley for long. We’ll get caught.”

  I ignored him. “A freelancer in what, Jimmy?”

  Dean sighed. “Listen, Jimmy sometimes does jobs for me.”

  I looked up at him. “Like what?”

  He shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”

  I wiggled my finger at him. “Uh-huh, I do want to know. I need to know.”

  Dean sighed again and ran his fingers through his hair. “He sometimes collects money from people.”

  I huffed. “And then the rest, I suppose...”, His silence told me everything.

  “So, you’re like a debt collector? Someone who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty when he needs to?” Tara looked at Jimmy expectantly.

  “Tara, you can’t ask him that.”

  She looked at me quizzically. “Why not? There’s no need to sugarcoat things. I’m not naïve.”

  I shrugged. I suppose she was right.

  She looked back at Jimmy and he smiled. “I suppose you could say that.”

  Tara’s eyes narrowed in a heated stare. “Mmmm… That’s kinda hot.”

  Jimmy beamed and my eyes widened. “Tara Becksworth, what has gotten into you?”

  Tara giggled and smiled at me. “I think it may be the rum. Or it could be Jimmy Taylor. Certainly one of the two. Maybe even both.”

  I shook my head. “My god, it’s like watching two people have sex with their clothes on.”

  Tara wiggled her finger at me. “Don’t you become all high and mighty with me, Miss ‘I let a strange man into my apartment for years’.”

  Jimmy laughed. “She’s got you there.”

  I shrugged. I suppose she did. I couldn’t help feeling embarrassed by it all, though. My face felt hot with the shame of it.

  “Don’t listen to them, Rosey. I got you.” Dean placed his arm around my shoulder and kissed my head.

  “Ah, we’re only playing,” Jimmy protested. He then looked at our surroundings. “I think you’re right, though. I don’t think staying here is a good idea. Shall we get a cab and go somewhere?”

  I had this sudden uneasy feeling in my stomach. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I think maybe I should go home.”

  Tara looked at me. “Why?”

  I briefly looked towards Dean, then back again. “I don’t think staying out much longer is a good idea.” I flicked my eyes towards Dean and I think she got the message.

/>   “Okay, I hear ya.” She came over to me and gave me a hug. Whispering in my ear, she said “Don’t forget to follow your heart.” She pulled back, looking at me. I nodded with a smile. She then turned and walked toward Jimmy, linking her arm in his. “Jimmy, I know this cool bar a bit closer to where I live. Do you fancy a drink with me?”

  Jimmy smiled down at her. “How could I refuse an offer like that?”

  He looked at Dean and Dean nodded before speaking, “I’ll make sure Tyler gets home safe.”

  Tara looked at me, asking if that was okay. I nodded. “Well, it was nice meeting you, Dean. Make sure you look after her for me. She’s precious.”

  Dean smiled. “You don’t have to tell me that.”

  Tara smiled and yanked at Jimmy’s arm to follow her. They soon disappeared, leaving Dean and me alone in the alley. Suddenly, I felt suffocated.

  “I need to get home.”

  Dean jumped in front of me. “Wait. I need to speak with you.”

  I sighed. “What else is there to say? I thought I made myself clear. You’re not the person I once knew.” I suddenly knew that now more than ever. I wasn’t stupid enough to not realize Dean was a dangerous man, but hearing it tonight kind of cemented something deep inside me. I had Jeremy to think about, and he was always going to be my priority. His safety was paramount.

  “And I keep telling you that I am. My feelings for you have never changed.”

  It was hard keeping my shit together around him. The moment we were alone, everything else just faded away. I couldn’t let him in, though. I needed to fight this.

  “Listen, Dean, I’m tired, a little bit drunk, my hand is throbbing, and my shoes are killing me. I just want to go home.”

  Dean reached out to grab my hand. “Here. Let me look.”

  I snatched it back. “No, Dean. I. Want. To. Go. Home.” I couldn’t be alone with him like this. Everything was washing over me again. His presence, his smell, his hypnotic blue eyes… If he even touched me once, I’d cave.

  I forced myself to look at him and what I saw killed me. He looked so lost and sad.

  With a deep breath, he sighed. “Okay, but we’ll catch a cab to your house. I need to make sure you get home safely. I won’t take no for an answer.”

  I nodded, resigned to the fact that this was just Dean being who he was. He was always so protective of me.

  In silence, we hailed a cab and rode the whole way without uttering a word. It wasn’t like us not to say anything, so it was completely unsettling and foreign.

  Once we were parked outside my house, I made a move to pay the driver, but Dean stopped me. “I got this. You go in and get some rest.”

  I smiled timidly at him and nodded. “Thank you.”

  I opened the car door and was about to get out when I heard a whisper behind me. “I love you, Tyler O’Shea. Don’t you ever forget that.”

  I paused for a moment, my eyes pooling with tears. I didn’t look back because I knew I couldn’t possibly leave without him if I did. Instead, I got out of the cab, walked up to my door, and walked in without a backwards glance. Once inside, I leaned back against my door and slowly slid to the floor.

  Chapter 6

  Dean

  It is his capacity for self-improvement

  and self-redemption which most distinguishes

  man from the mere brute.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  I watched as Tyler opened her door and went in without looking back once. It fucking killed me. I gave the cab driver the address of where I was staying and sat back, burying my head in my hands.

  “Rough night?”

  I pulled my hands away and looked at a pair of eyes staring at me in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, something like that.”

  “There’s always that one, isn’t there?”

  I frowned, not knowing what he was getting at. “What do you mean?”

  I saw his eyes crinkle into a smile. “The one who sticks with you no matter what. The one who never leaves your mind no matter how many years have passed.”

  I laughed silently, thinking how perceptive he was. He was more correct than he realized. “You got that right.”

  “Can I ask you something?”

  I laughed. “You can try.”

  “Is she worth it?”

  My heart wrenched in my chest. She was worth it more than she would ever know. “She’s definitely worth it. She’s worth it all and more.”

  The cab driver shrugged. “Then I guess you gotta keep telling yourself the same thing.”

  Raising my eyebrow, I wondered where he was going with this. “What’s that?”

  He looked up at me in the mirror. “Some things are just worth fighting for.”

  *****

  The cab driver dropped me off, his words still ringing in my ears. I didn’t know who the hell he was, but something inside was telling me he was like a voice of reason. Someone I was meant to bump into so he could give me a message I really needed to hear. When Tyler left me, I didn’t know what to think. I felt like I was losing her all over again. She looked so broken tonight. After the fight, I thought things might change between us and I’d finally get my Tyler back. Then something shifted in the air after Tara and Jimmy left. Her playful, soft features suddenly turned hard. She put up her walls so strong, even I couldn’t penetrate them. I just wished I knew what the fuck she was thinking. It always fascinated me when I was younger, but now that we were all grown up and things around us had changed, it just frustrated the hell out of me. I needed to know what she felt. If I knew there was a chance she would possibly let me in, I’d be around at her house like a shot, begging her to take me back.

  But she obviously needed time, and I wanted her to see that I was the kind of man who could give her what she needed. I wasn’t going to be selfish and beg for her time, beg for her love, no matter how much it fucking cut me up not to. It took everything within me not to reach out and touch her. She was like my magnet. I was drawn to her like an invisible force. It was the same thing that drew me so violently towards her when I was only eight-years-old. It never waned, it never stopped. In fact, the power of it just grew stronger with time.

  When I got back to hotel, all was quiet. Jimmy was obviously still out with Tara and I certainly wasn’t expecting him home tonight. I never saw Jimmy like that with a woman before. Tara seemed like a nice girl, though. Anyone who wanted to love and protect Tyler was always going to be a friend to me.

  As I opened the fridge to get a bottle of water, I looked up and saw that it was after two in the morning. It certainly had been quite a night. Thinking about it made me smile. Tyler was on fire tonight. Thinking about her fighting all those big men in the bar made my dick twitch. I knew she was always a little bit feisty, but I had never actually seen her in action like that. It was fucking sexy. I don’t know how she could possibly even begin to think I could walk away from her. Not now. Not ever.

  Some things are just worth fighting for.

  I downed the bottle of water, threw it in the bin, and switched off the lights to head for bed. Tyler was worth every bit of fight I had left in me, and it certainly wasn’t anywhere near the fucking last round yet.

  Chapter 7

  Tyler

  It was getting harder and harder to suppress my feelings for Dean. It was difficult, so fucking complex that it killed me inside. I wanted Dean so badly, it hurt and couldn’t be ignored.

  It was also getting harder and harder to keep away from Jeremy. I missed him so much, but after what happened last night, I was determined not to expose him to his dad. He didn’t need a father like that in his life, so I needed to protect him.

  Closing my eyes for a second, I opened them back up to look at myself in the mirror. It was seven o’clock the next evening and I was getting ready for my night out with Evan. He was picking me up in an hour and I still needed to pick an outfit. Sometimes, picking something to wear comes easily and other times, it seems so fucking hard for some reason. Tonight was one
of the hard nights. Nothing in my wardrobe looked right when I tried it on.

  I was about to change yet another outfit when I heard my phone ringing. When I looked, I saw it was Tara and snapped my phone up. “Tara, where the fuck have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you all day. I’ve been worried sick.”

  “I’m sorry, baby girl. I was busy with Jimmy and my battery ran out of power. I’ve only managed to get home and charge it back up now.”

  I was a little bit angry, but calmer now that I knew she was safe. “What happened after you left?”

  “Oh, my god, Tyler. I don’t know where the fuck this Jimmy came from, but wow. He’s like a fucking dream come true. When we left you, we jumped in a cab and went to Toni’s near me. We must have stayed there until four in the morning. All we did was talk, and it was easy, you know? We didn’t have to sit there and think about what to say next. The conversation just came naturally. He was sweet, he was funny, he was kind, and he didn’t once try to cop a feel or make some rude remark. He was the perfect gentleman.”

  She was gushing. It was actually kind of sweet. It made my anger disappear completely. “So you didn’t sleep with him?”

  “Oh, I slept with him. Did you not see him? Damn!”

  We both started giggling. “I take it you had a good time then?” I was hinting and I knew she could tell.

  “It was the best sex I’ve ever had. And his tongue—”

  I put my finger in my ear. “La, la, la, la, la, la, la.”

  I heard her giggling. “Okay, I’ll stop.”

  I laughed. “Thank you.” I paused a moment, then said, “Are you going to see him again?”

  “Oh, yes,” she purred. “Tonight, in fact.”

  I smiled. “That’s great. Have a great time.”

  “Thanks. Are you still going out with Evan tonight?”

  I sighed. “Yes. It just seems so hard now. I can’t put my finger on it.”

  Tara went silent for a moment. “Having Dean here must be confusing as hell. I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself. Jimmy told me some stuff about Dean last night. Despite some of his misgivings, he seems like a great guy. I can totally understand how hard this must be for you. Maybe you just need to tell Evan that you need some time away.”